From a child you probably believed that "Easter" signified the resurrection of Christ. For 1800 years the Western world has been taught that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday morning. These are merely some of the fabler that were spun by that arch heretic Simon Magus! Christ did not rise Easter Sunday. He said He would be in the grave "three day! and three nights." How can you figure 72 hours between so-called "Good Friday" at Sunset and "Easter morning"? You will want to know when Jesus did rise from the dead, so write immediately for the astonishing proof in our free booklet, "The Resurrection Was NOT on Sunday." The name "Easter" is merely a slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar. As Alexander Hislop says in The Two Babylons, Easter "bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the 'queen of heaven,' whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country." Easter, according to Webster's dictionary, comes "from the name of the old Teuton goddess of spring." You probably never were taught that, were you? It is all explained in our free booklet, "Easter is Pagan." Instead of observing the customs of the churches of our day, the original, inspired Church of God, under the guidance of the Apostles, observed the Passover as Jesus commanded on the eve of the anniversary of His death. Even the writers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, realized that when writing their article, "Easter": "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers... The first Christians continued the observance of the Jewish [that is, God's] festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed." Yes, the true, original Church kept the Passover or Communion annually when God commanded. It was years later, after the death of the apostles, after the Samaritan conspiracy begun by Simon Magus had taken root that we find the observance of Easter beginning. Following the example of Jesus and the apostles, the early true Church observed the Passover, and the Days of Unleavened Bread which immediately followed. Notice Acts 12:3. The Holy Spirit of God inspired these words: "Then were the Days of Unleavened Bread." But in the next verse we read of "Easter." This word "Easter" is a MISTRANSLATION. The original Greek word is "pascha," meaning PASSOVER. In every other place where the same Greek word is used in the original, it is rendered PASSOVER in the King James Version. Many other translations faithfully render this verse in Acts as "intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people." So this verse, instead of mentioning Easter, really proves that the Church, ten years after the death of Christ, was still observing Passover. Then when did the celebration of Easter Sunday enter the Church calendar? Since Easter Sunday was derived by Protestants from the Catholic Church, it is to the Catholic Church that we must turn for testimony regarding the origin of Easter. Here is their testimony — and they should know — they introduced it! Here is what Socrates Scholasticus wrote in his Ecclesiastical History not long after Emperor Constantine, in the 4th century: "Neither the apostles, therefore, nor the Gospels, have anywhere imposed... Easter... Wherefore, inasmuch as men love festivals, because they afford them cessation from labor: each individual in every place, according to his own pleasure, has by a prevalent custom celebrated (Easter)... The Saviour and His apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast... just as many other customs have been established in individual localities according to usage, so also the feast of Easter CAME TO BE OBSERVED IN EACH PLACE ACCORDING TO THE INDIVIDUAL PECULIARITIES OF THE PEOPLES inasmuch as none of the apostles legislated on the matter. And that the observance originated not by legislation, BUT AS A CUSTOM the facts themselves indicate" (chapter 22). So says this ancient Catholic historian in the fourth century. Here is what Kurtz's Church History states about Easter: "The Saxon name Easter is derived from the old German festival of Ostara, the goddess of spring, which was celebrated at the same season" (Vol. I, p. 356). "The English Earter, Anglo-Saxon Oster, German Ostern, is at all events connected with the East and sunrise..." says the Protestant historian Schaff, who continued to write that "the transfer of the celebration of Ostara...to the Christian Easter festival" took place years after the death of Paul. (From a footnote in Schaff's History of the Church, Vol. I, p. 373.) Easter came from pagan sun-worship, not from Jesus Christ or the apostles. It is one of those Babylonian customs brought to Samaria after Israel's overthrow (721-718 B.C.) by the colonists from Babylonia. Later it was transplanted to Rome by Simon Magus. Simon Magus, who was the "Great Interpreter" or "Peter" of the pagan mystery, palmed off Easter as if it were Christian, About 600 years before Christ, the prophet Ezekiel saw, in vision, an Easter celebration! Notice it, in Ezekiel, chapter 8, verses 12-17: "Then He (God) brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz." What Ezekiel saw here in vision is a prophecy for today! — for the House of Israel — Great Britain and America. And our professing Christian people are practicing this very ABOMINATION today as our ancestors did centuries before Christ. Do you know why those women were weeping for Tammuz? Here is the answer: Tammuz was Nimrod — the heathen messiah — the false Christ of the pagans — who was slain on Friday and supposedly rose on Sunday morning. They observed Lent just as many churches observe it today, with weeping on "Good Friday" and rejoicing on Easter Sunday morning! God calls this an ABOMINATION! But notice further: "Then said He unto me (God is speaking to Ezekiel): 'Hast thou seen this, O son of man? thou shalt again see yet greater abominations than these.' And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, AND THEIR FACES TOWARD THE EAST; AND THEY WORSHIPPED THE SUN TOWARD THE EAST." This is what professing Christians are doing today — turning their backs on God and celebrating pagan customs on Easter Sunday, supposedly in honor of Christ, who did not rise from the dead on Sunday at all! Jesus Christ — the Word of God — ordered Moses to warn the people not to follow these customs of the heathen. Here is what Jesus Christ said: "Take heed... that thou inquire not after their gods, saying: 'How used these nations to serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.' THOU SHALT NOT DO SO UNTO THE ETERNAL THY GOD; FOR EVERY ABOMINATION TO THE ETERNAL, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods" (Deut. 12:30-31). Here is what God says — it doesn't matter what we think — but it DOES MATTER what God thinks. He calls these pagan Easter customs abominations. No wonder the apostles did not teach the early spirit-filled New Testament Church of God to observe these traditions of men! Is it any wonder that Jeremiah was inspired to write: "Learn not the way of the heathen... for the customs of the people are vain"? (Jer. 10:2.) Now that we know the pagan, origin of the Easter celebration, let's clear away the web of error that covers the truth about keeping the Passover, the memorial of Christ's death. We need to return to the faith Jesus delivered to us. Write immediately for the booklet "When and How Often Should We Observe 'the Lord's Supper'?" It makes the truth plain.